Firth drops season opener in extra innings

March 21, 2013

FIRTH — It was a good old fashioned cat fight at Firth High School on Thursday afternoon as the Lady Cougars of Firth welcomed the Lady Cougars of South Fremont to town for the season opener.
At the end of the day it took a bonus inning to decide the outcome and unfortunately for the home town team, it was South Fremont who got the best of the match up as they scored 8 runs in the eighth inning to take the 13-8 victory.

"I think the girls did good," Firth head coach Rachel Olsen said. "The last inning was rough but we have had injury after injury and we are a young team. We've been outside for about 3 days but now we know what we need to work on."
After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first inning Firth battled back as they started the season with a three run home half of the first to take a 3-1 lead. Jordyn Park ignited the uprising with a lead off walk and a pair of stolen bases. Shelby Pfeifer provided the big stick in the inning with a 2RBI single.
Pfeifer ended the day with 3 hits and 3RBI and Park scored 3 of the Lady Cougars runs on the afternoon.
South Fremont cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the second inning and then tied the game at 3-3 with a lone run in the top of the third.
Firth answered with a run in the bottom of the third inning as Brittana Spencer drove in a run with an RBI double and the Lady Cougars extended that lead to 5-3 courtesy of a Pfeifer RBI single to score Park in the home half of the fourth inning.
"We are a very inexperienced team this year and our pitcher is out until the fifth of April with an injury so we are calling on girls to play positions that they never have really played before," coach Olsen said. "I'm really proud that we didn't just give up today though."
South Fremont eventually tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the sixth inning and after a scoreless seventh the game headed into extra innings.
South Fremont took advantage of that extra frame as they plated 8 runners in an inning that they collected zero hits. Eight walks, two hit batsmen and an error spelled doom for Firth as they headed to the home half of the eight inning trailing 13-5.
The youngsters stepped up however as Lexey Baxter swatted a solid single to score Rosie Skarr. Park picked up another base on balls and both runners scored when Lindsey Jenkins drove them in with an infield single that was botched by the South Fremont pitcher. The rally ended there however as South Fremont closed the door with a ground out to second and a fly ball to right.
Firth (0-1) will be back in action on Tuesday when they host the same South Fremont squad at 4 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to be played in St. Anthony but the field will not be playable so the game will be played at Firth instead.